Seidr Awakening
Roadmap

From prototype to launch

Depth before breadth. We finish one people as a genuinely good game on the handheld and in the browser, then add the other two, then voice and campaign, then online play.

Status as of 5 November 2026: alpha playable, polish in progress. Every date here is an estimate for a small team using AI help, not a promise.

Where we are

There is a playable alpha on the handheld and in your browser, and the work now is polish: sound, then art.

  • Playable alpha: doneMenus, Campaign, Skirmish, Custom map seed codes, Tutorial, Settings, pause and result screens. One base, Ore, Masons, Acolytes, Casters, Seers, Breakers and a hero, against an AI. Play it in your browser.
  • Command and vision: doneMinimap, fog of war (the AI plays under it too), control groups, idle-Mason and army shortcuts, queued orders, patrol, tactical map on a pad. See the controls.
  • Handheld and browser: doneOne Rust codebase on the R36S, in WebAssembly, and later on the server, with identical results. 130 units at 58.5 fps and 400 at 58.4 fps on the handheld, capped by the screen, using about 20 MB.
  • Audio: in progressThe narrator, announcer and Hesh unit voices are recorded (listen). The in-game mixer, sound effects and music are being built; the volume sliders are placeholders for now.
  • Visual polish: in progressHesh models and hero concepts for all three peoples (see them). The game still uses placeholder terrain and early models.
  • Not built yetAether Wells and the full Ages and Inscriptions, saves and replays, campaign missions beyond the first, Oru and Thalm, and everything online.

Technical budgets we hold to

Handheld frame rate
58 fps, worst frame 20 ms
Handheld memory
150 MB at most
Handheld heat
under 75 °C after an hour
Browser first download
60 MB at most
Online traffic
under 5 KB a second per player
VR (Quest)
72 Hz, 300 units

The road

Each stop has a test it must pass, mostly automated, before we move on.

  1. The prototype Done

    Shared Rust core, browser and handheld builds, matching hashes, Meshy model pipeline, first playable base-and-army game.

  2. The playable alpha Done

    Orders and control groups, building placement, fog of war and a minimap, three AI difficulties, menus, tutorial, pause and result screens, settings, seed-code maps and four handcrafted ones, on the handheld and in the browser.

  3. Art, tutorial and Act I

    Final Meshy-based models retopologised to handheld budgets, effects made in code, five tutorial lessons and campaign missions 1 to 4.

    Gate: every unit readable at 35 pixels tall, and a scripted bot can complete each mission on each difficulty.

  4. Oru and Thalm

    Walking buildings and caravans; tide-driven economy and beasts; AI for both; art for both. Estimated 20 weeks after Hesh Alpha.

    Gate: each of the nine matchups between peoples lands between 45% and 55% in 300 AI games, and the owner says each people plays differently.

  5. Voice, music and Acts II and III

    Narrator and unit voices, music, subtitles for everything; missions 5 to 12 including the seeded Hollow Bazaar and the finale.

  6. Handheld release v0.9

    Clean install, a PortMaster submission, power-loss-safe saves, a one-hour heat test.

    Gate: a fresh SD card boots to the menu in 8 seconds or less and every budget is green on the device.

  7. PC and browser graphics

    Detailed models, large textures, shadows, bloom, quality presets and UI scaling up to 4K. The simulation does not change, so replays and hashes stay valid.

  8. Online, ranked and community

    Accounts, relay server, quick match, the Glicko-2 ladder with commitment badges, reports, replays in the browser, map-code pages and the Seed of the Week.

    Gate: two browsers on different networks finish 20 matches without a desync, and reconnecting works. Estimated 16 to 24 weeks of work.

  9. Phone, then VR

    Touch interface, installable web app, then a Quest tabletop diorama: spectating first, play against the AI next.

  10. Launch checks

    Trademark search in South Africa, the EU, the US and the WIPO database; privacy and terms pages; licence audit; Afrikaans, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese text.

    Launch 1.0: roughly 14 to 18 months from today at the current pace.

What stays out of version one

  • No naval layer and no terrain height beyond a high-ground flag.
  • No free text chat, no maps for five or more players, no mod scripting.
  • No microtransactions or monetisation.
  • No fog-authoritative server for ranked. Cheating is caught by detection and review.

What could move the plan

RiskWhat we do
The handheld has less GPU headroom than the capped numbers suggestLower the animated-model budget, use sprites for distant units, drop shadows.
Fog of war with 400 units is too slowUpdate vision every four ticks, coarser stamps, cap at 500 entities.
Building and commanding with a gamepad is too slowSuggested spots, a flick shortcut on the radial, auto-assign Masons.
Three peoples are hard to balanceData-only tuning, AI matches every night.
The working title collides with a registered markRename to “Seidr: …” before art and site spend.
Too few players for ranked queuesLabelled bot opponents, ladder nights, Seed of the Week.